The town has over 1,000 years of religious and military history, including a monastery in the 10th century and Taunton Castle which has origins in the Anglo Saxon period and was later the site of a priory. The Normans then built a stone structured castle, which belonged to the Bishops of Winchester. The current heavily reconstructed buildings are the inner ward, which now houses the Museum of Somerset and the Somerset Military Museum. The town is undergoing a regeneration project with redevelopment of the town centre. It has various transport links which support its central role in economy and commerce. These have included the Grand Western Canal which reached Taunton in 1839 and arrival of the railway in 1842.

A monastery was founded before 904.[8] The bishops of Winchester owned the manor, and obtained the first charter for their "men of Taunton" from King Edward in 904, freeing them from all royal and county tribute. At some time before the Domesday Survey Taunton had become a borough with very considerable privileges, and a population of around 1,500[7] and 64 burgesses,[4] governed by a portreeve appointed by the bishops. Somerton took over from Ilchester as the county town in the late thirteenth century,[9] but it declined in importance and the status of county town transferred to Taunton about 1366.[10] Between 1209 and 1311 the manor of Taunton, which was owned by the Bishop of Winchester, increased two and a half times.[11] The parishes of Staplegrove, Wilton and Taunton itself were part of the Taunton DeaneHundred.[12]

The town did not obtain a charter of incorporation until 1627,[7] which was renewed in 1677. The charter lapsed in 1792 owing to vacancies for the members of the corporate body, and Taunton was not reincorporated until 1877. The medieval fairs and markets of Taunton (it still holds a weekly market today), were celebrated for the sale of woollen cloth called "Tauntons" made in the town. On the decline of the woollen industry in the west of England, silk-weaving was introduced at the end of the 18th century.[18]

In 1839 the Grand Western Canal reached Taunton aiding trade to the south,[19] which was further enhanced by the arrival of the railway in 1842.[4]

Regeneration[edit]

Taunton was named as a 'Strategically Important Town or City' in the government's Regional Spatial Strategy, allowing Somerset County Council to receive funding for large-scale regeneration projects.[22] In 2006, the council revealed plans which it called "Project Taunton". This would see the regeneration of the areas of Firepool, Tangier, the Retail town centre, the cultural quarter, and the River Tone,[23] aiming to sustain Taunton as a central hub for business in the South West.

The new bridge under construction in the Tangier district. Taken in February 2011

The Firepool area on the northern edge of Taunton town centre, adjacent to the main line railway station, currently includes a high proportion of vacant or undeveloped land. The Council is promoting a sustainable, high quality, employment-led mixed use development. The Firepool project is set to attract 3,000 new jobs and 500 new homes.[24]

The "Cultural Quarter" is the area along the river between Firepool and Tangier.[26] The proposals have plans to extend riverside retail, an aim to attract more smaller, boutique businesses, such as those already found in the Riverside shopping centre.[27]

Plans for the town centre include greater pedestrianisation and an increase in size and number of retail units.[28]

Several sites along the River Tone are set to undergo renovation. Firepool Weir lock — long silted up — will be dredged during 2011[29] to allow boats to pass from the navigable section of the Tone through Taunton to the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal. Goodland Gardens has received a makeover and a new cafe, The Shed, has opened. Projects to develop Somerset Square (the paved area next to the Brewhouse Theatre) and Longrun Meadow (country park near to SCAT) have already been delivered.[29]

The government sees Taunton's traffic congestion problems as a serious obstacle to its continuing economic growth.[22] An important part of the government's growth strategy for the town is new road infrastructure consisting of a new link road (Taunton's Third Way) which was completed 27 September 2011 at a cost of £7.5 million,[30] and a second link road (the Northern Inner Distributor Road) planned for completion by the end of 2014 at a cost of £21 million.[31] The road would link Staplegrove Road with Priory Avenue, running across Station Road.

Governance[edit]

Taunton includes an area named Holway which was once a village in its own right. Holway was originally one of the Five Hundreds of Taunton Dean, the Infaring division or district of the three districts that made up Taunton Dean.[32] The parish of Staplegrove is situated in the northern suburbs of Taunton. The parish, largely built by Monsell Youell Construction Ltd in the 1970s, has a population of 1,889.[33]

Taunton Deane Borough Council consists of 55 councillors, of whom 20 are elected for wards in the town of Taunton. The wards are: Blackbrook & Holway; Eastgate; Fairwater; Halcon; Lyngford; Manor & Wilton and Pyrland & Rowbarton. Eastgate ward returns two councillors, with the remaining wards each returning three.[35]

County Council[edit]

County Hall, The Crescent

Somerset County Council is based at County Hall in Taunton, and consists of 58 councillors. The town of Taunton is included in six electoral divisions, each returning a single county councillor: Taunton East; Taunton Fairwater; Taunton North; Taunton South; Taunton West and Taunton and Trull (which also includes rural areas). Five councillors are members of the Liberal Democrats, and one is a Conservative.[36]

Climate[edit]

Along with the rest of South West England, Taunton has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country.[42] The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C (50.0 °F). Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately 21 °C (69.8 °F). In winter mean minimum temperatures of 1 °C (33.8 °F) or 2 °C (35.6 °F) are common.[42] In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, however convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours.[42] In December 1998 there were 20 days without sun recorded at Yeovilton. Most the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around 700 mm (28 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.[42]

Economy[edit]

The annual Taunton Carnival takes a route through the shopping district in the centre of the town.

Taunton Deane had a low unemployment rate of 4.1% compared with the national average of 5.0% in 2005.[47]

Taunton is home to the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) which is an organisation within the Ministry of Defence responsible for providing navigational and other hydrographic information for national, civil and defence requirements. The UKHO is located on Admiralty Way and has a workforce of approximately 1100 staff.[48] At the start of the Second World War chart printing moved to Taunton but the main office did not move until 1968.[49]

Landmarks[edit]

Gray's Almshouses

Gray's Almshouses on East Street were founded by Robert Gray in 1615 for poor single women.[53] The red brick buildings bear the arms of Robert Gray, dated 1635, and another arms of the Merchant Tailors. A small room is used as chapel and has original benches and a painted ceiling. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.[54]St Margaret's Almshouses was founded as a leper colony in the 12th century. Glastonbury Abbey acquired the patronage of the hospital in the late 13th century and rebuilt it as almshouses in the early 16th century. From 1612 to 1938 the building continued to be used as almshouses, cared for by a local parish. In the late 1930s it was converted into a hall of offices for the Rural Community Council and accommodation for the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen. It later fell into disrepair until the Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust with Falcon Rural Housing purchased and restored it for use as four dwellings of social housing. It is a grade II* listed building.[55]

The grounds of Taunton Castle[56] include the Somerset County Museum and The Castle Hotel, which incorporates the Castle Bow archway. Together with the municipal buildings they form a three-sided group of buildings just beyond the Castle Bow archway from Fore Street. The centre of the square is used as a car park, and a plain brick edifice of Mecca Bingo hall makes up the west side of it.

The frontage of the Tudor Tavern (now a branch of Caffè Nero) in Fore Street dates from 1578 but the rest of the building is thought to date from the fourteenth century.[57]

Tudor Buildings, Fore Street

The area by the river north of the centre is surrounded by Morrisons supermarket, retirement housing and the Brewhouse Theatre. Towards the centre, is the Dellers Wharf Nightclub, Bridge Street and Goodlands Gardens. Currently a regeneration programme is being executed, north of Bridge Street, which will include redeveloping the County Cricket Ground. The area has hosted concerts by Elton John in 2006 and 2012.

Taunton has three other retail parks. Belvedere Retail Park is situated close to the town centre and consists of retailers such as Bathstore, Laura Ashley and Johnsons Cleaners. St Johns Retail Park is just off Toneway, going towards the motorway and consists of three units. The only one that is currently occupied at the moment is by DFS, but there have been planning applications approved by Taunton Deane Borough Council to amalgamate the two vacant units so that Go Outdoors can occupy them. Taunton's second largest retail park is Priory Fields Retail Park and this is also just off of Toneway. It consists of five units plus an anchor store, Wickes Extra. It was redeveloped in 2003 to modernize the rather worn out appearance of the retail park and also to increase retail floor space.

The Old Market was a farmers market and took place on the Parade in front of Market House but this eventually moved to the Firepool area, although cattle trading on the site ceased in 2008.[58] A large indoor shopping centre to the east of the Parade was built on a site which had, at one time been a pig market. Although its official name is now Orchard, and before that the Old Market Centre, locals still refer to it as "The Pig Market" as one operated on the site from 1614 to 1882.[59]

In 2009, Project Taunton,[70] the authority responsible for Taunton's major regeneration project, revealed plans for Taunton metro rail, as part of their transport sustainability plan.

Road[edit]

Taunton also has good road links, having the M5 motorway junctions 25 (Taunton) and 26 (Wellington) close to the town, as well as other major roads such as the A38 and A358. The Taunton bypass section of M5, from J25-26, opened in April 1974, relieving the town of heavy holiday traffic on the A38. Taunton Deane services are located between junctions 25 and 26 on the M5. However, with the flourishing local economy, traffic is a problem with Somerset County Council giving a prediction of a significant increase based on 2001 levels.[71] Two major new road have been undertaken since 2010. The "Third Way" linking Bridge Street and castle Street opened in 2011,[72] and a Northern Inner Distributor Road between Staplegrove Road and Priory Avneueh is due to open in March 2015.[73]

2011 M5 motorway crash[edit]

On the evening of 4 November 2011, 34 vehicles were involved in an accident close to junction 25 of the M5 motorway northbound, on the north eastern edge of the town at West Monkton.[74] Seven people were confirmed as dead, with a further 51 injured.[75]

Air[edit]

Trams[edit]

A single deck car in Fore Street

The Taunton Tramway was opened on 21 August 1901. Six double deck cars operated on the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge line between the railway station and East Reach where the depot was situated. In 1905 the service was withdrawn for two months while the track was improved; the cars were replaced at the same time by six single deck cars and the old double deckers were sold to Leamington Spa. A short extension beyond the station to Rowbarton was opened in 1909 making the line 1.66 miles (2.7 km) long. The price of its electricity was due to increase in 1928 which the company refused to pay so it offered to sell out but this was not accepted. The electricity was cut off on 28 May 1921 and so the system closed.[84][85]

Canal[edit]

The Bridgwater and Taunton Canal is a navigable waterway which links Taunton with Bridgwater, which first opened in 1827 and having been closed to navigation in 1907 it re-opened following restoration in 1994.

In March 2009, it was announced that Jim Knight, Minister of State for Schools and Families, had approved plans that would mean the closure of both Ladymead and nearby St Augustine of Canterbury.[86] The schools closed in July 2010, and were replaced in September 2010 by The Taunton Academy.[87]

Health Services[edit]

Taunton is within Somerset Primary Care Trust and is home to Musgrove Park Hospital, within Taunton and Somerset Foundation NHS Trust. This is one of two district hospitals within Somerset alongside Yeovil District Hospital. A Nuffield Hospital is also situated within the town, run privately by Nuffield Health. The town is also home to several doctor's surgeries as well as a family planning clinic, occupational health centre and chiropractic clinic.[88][89]

Religious sites[edit]

The Mary Street Unitarian Chapel, which dates from 1721,[90] is located on Mary Street in Taunton. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, while living Nether Stowey 16 miles (26 km) away, came to the chapel to preach on several occasions. Dr. Malachi Blake, who founded the Taunton and Somerset Hospital in East Reach, Taunton, was also a preacher at the chapel, attending in 1809 in celebration of the fiftieth year of George the Third's reign. The Chapel still has the original interior including Flemish oak pillars in the Corinthian style. The pews and pulpit are also in oak, and there is an early-18th-century candelabra.

In the latter part of the 17th century, Taunton had two dissenting places of worship: "Paul's Meeting" and the Baptist Meeting.[91] Paul's Meeting was built at the top of Paul Street soon after 1672 on part of a bowling green behind the Three Cups Inn, now The County Hotel, and rapidly became one of the largest congregations in the county. After Mayor Timewell sacked both Paul's Meeting and the Baptist Meeting in 1683, the dissenters were driven to worship in private houses on the outskirts of Taunton, where their assemblies were regularly raided by the Justices. Paul's Meeting survived attempts to turn it into a workhouse and, with the coming of William and Mary, followed by the Toleration Act of 1689, was reopened. Hugh Willoughby, 15th Baron Willoughby of Parham, was educated in early life at Taunton Dissenters' Academy.[92] The Baptist Meeting became the Baptist New Meeting was registered in 1691 and rebuilt in 1721 as Mary Street Chapel.[93]

The parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, built of sandstone more in the South Somerset style, preserves an attractive painted interior, but its most notable aspect is its 15th- and 16th-century tower (rebuilt in the mid-19th century), which is one of the best examples in the country and a 163 feet (50 m) tall landmark.[94][95] It was described by Simon Jenkins, an acknowledged authority on English churches, as "the finest in England. It makes its peace with the sky not just with a coronet but with the entire crown jewels cast in red-brown stone."[96] The tower itself has 12 bells and 3 bells "hung dead" for the clock mechanism.[97]

The parish church of St. James is also located near the centre of Taunton quite close to St. Mary Magdalene. The oldest parts of St. James Church are early-14th-century, and there are fragments of 15th-century glass in the west end. Like St. Mary's it also has a sandstone tower but built to a much less impressive design. The tower was also, like St. Mary's, rebuilt in the 19th century – in this case thought to be due to building defects in the original tower.[98] The church backs onto the County Ground and forms a familiar backdrop to the popular cricket ground.

Culture[edit]

Although at the centre of a large region stretching at least 30 miles in all directions, the town lacks a public building such as an assembly room, municipal hall or large covered space in which events and entertainments can be held.

Until its closure in February 2013, caused by financial difficulties, the small Brewhouse Theatre provided a busy programme of drama, dance, comedy, music, exhibitions and poetry by both local and national touring artists.[99] Since closure, the building has been in the hands of Administrators. With support from Taunton Deane Borough Council, a grassroots voluntary group was able to reopen it in April 2014. The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre has been fully open since this date.

In 2006 and 2012 Taunton hosted large open-air concerts by Sir Elton John at Somerset County Cricket Ground.[104]

Taunton is home to several choirs and orchestras who perform in the town's churches and independent schools' chapels. Many local musical and drama groups are members of the Taunton Association of Performing Arts (TAPA) which produces a diary and anti-clash calendar of performances in and around the town.[105]

Comedian Bill Bailey mentions the town in his stand-up DVD Part Troll, claiming to have taken part in a teleportation experiment sponsored by Taunton Cider.[110]

Sport[edit]

Somerset playing Yorkshire at the County Ground.

Taunton Rugby Football Club is an English rugby union club that is based in Taunton, Somerset. They currently play in National League 2 South, having achieved back-to-back promotions in 2009 and 2010.

The County Ground was originally home to Taunton Cricket Club, which was formed in 1829 and played at the County Ground until 1977 before moving to Moorfields, Taunton in conjunction with Taunton Vale Hockey Club, after which the County Ground has been solely used by Somerset County Cricket Club.[111] Somerset CCC was formed in 1875, but the club did not achieve first class status until 1891.[112] The County Ground has a capacity of 8,500[113] and the ends are called the River End and the Old Pavilion End.[114] It is the current home of the England women's cricket team. The Somerset Cricket Museum is situated by the County Ground.

Taunton Cricket Club have since 2002 been located at the new Taunton Vale Sports Club Ground, in Staplegrove, which features two cricket fields. The Taunton Vale ground is also a regular home venue for Somerset's Second XI. Taunton Deane Cricket Club have a ground adjacent to Vivary Park, while Taunton St Andrews Cricket Club are located at the nearby Wyvern Sports and Social Club. All three clubs play in the West of England Premier League or one of its feeder leagues.

Taunton Town F.C. are a football club, who play at Wordsworth Drive in the town.[115] They were formed in 1947 by a few local businessmen as Taunton F.C., changing to the current name in 1968, and played their first friendly fixture in 1948. For most of their history, Taunton were members of the Western League. They spent a six-season spell in the Southern League from 1977, and after a further period in the Western League, returned to the Southern League in 2002, after winning the FA Vase in 2001.[116] After the latest re-organisation of the English football league system, the club are currently members of the Southern League Division One South & West.

Somerset Vikings are a Rugby League Club who were formed at the beginning of 2003 as part of the Rugby Football League's plans to develop the game further beyond the traditional areas in the north of England. Initially the side was made up of a mixture of Royal Marines based in Taunton and Exeter together with a number of local rugby union players keen to try the 13-man code. The Vikings play at Hyde Park which is the home of the Taunton R.F.C., a rugby union club, which was formed in 1875.[117]

Taunton Racecourse is close to the Blackdown Hills and about 2 miles (3 km) from the centre of Taunton. Although racing had been held in the area previously, the first race at the present site was held on 21 September 1927. The stands are called the Orchard Stand and the Paddock Stand which provide catering facilities and are used for meetings and conferences on days when racing is not taking place.[119]

Volleyball Taunton are a local volleyball club that have played for a number of years, more recently in the Exeter & District League. They train and play their home games at Wellsprings Leisure Centre.[120]

There is an oval motor racing circuit at Smeatharpe which is close to the Somerset/Devon border, it is frequently referred to as the Taunton Banger racing circuit although it is around 11 miles from central Taunton.[121]

Local skateboarders raised £183,000 for a replacement skatepark at Hamilton Gault Park which opened in May 2010.

Taunton Freeriders is a community mountain bike project in partnership with the Forestry Commission who are developing a series of northshore and downhill (DH) style mountain bike trails just outside of the town. Run by volunteers from the local close-knit riding community and funded solely by kind donations, they are also involved with the redevelopment of the "Norton Dirt Jumps".

Charles George Gordon – British general, known as Gordon of Khartoum. Was educated at Fullands School, now a retirement complex off Shoreditch Road, and also lodged in a house next to the Temple Methodist Church.